With the introduction and rapid adoption of the Internet and the World Wide Web, huge amounts of data and information are increasingly more accessible. A variety of companies have developed “products” consisting of specific information topics.
Commercial entities are not alone in taking advantage of this technology. Regulatory authorities in federal, state, and local governments are providing citizens access to frequently requested information via the Internet. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has allowed access to a wide variety of documents and regulatory records, making these available upon request. More and more, these documents and regulatory records are made available through government websites.
Although the ready availability of regulatory information has significantly improved over the past decade, the ability to use the information in a meaningful way remains limited. Compliance and enforcement data that are collected and used by regulatory agencies are highly compartmentalized according to the agency responsible for collecting it. There is little consolidation of inter-agency regulatory information, making it difficult to quickly and easily perform regulatory performance assessments for either the regulatory agencies or the regulated party. Even regulators are forced to access multiple information sources to completely characterize regulatory performance and compliance history.
Consolidation of the many data repositories of regulatory agencies is problematic for several reasons. As each agency has developed their database systems to meet their own needs, the data format, user interface, and data definitions are not necessarily consistent with other agency information systems. Correcting this condition to allow inter-agency access under a single compatible system would be expensive, time-consuming, and resource intensive. Government agencies have little available resources to accomplish such a consolidation.
For regulated industries, the problem is similar. Enforcement focus is subject to change, depending upon the environment. For instance, regulatory agencies may choose to focus closely on enforcement of certain environmental laws following a much publicized chemical accident. Enforcement focus may also change for less obvious reasons. A problem encountered by one manufacturer may alert the regulators to scrutinize areas that have not previously been examined. Without rapid access to good regulatory intelligence, both companies and regulators may be unprepared to manage a public health issue.
It is difficult to stay current with the constantly changing requirements and compliance trends. Today, there is not a timely, efficient, and effective way to stay current. Regulatory research into specific areas is difficult and time-consuming. This research requires highly specialized knowledge of the regulatory processes and the available information sources.
The diverse nature of the information sources discussed above makes integration of the data resource intensive and costly. Accordingly, there would be an advantage in the art to provide a system and method for addressing these issues by providing an easy to use, single point reference that enables research of or relating to people, products, companies, regulators and/or the regulatory environment. Moreover, such a system and method would provide ready access to understandable regulatory intelligence to facilitate the regulatory process, and to benefit related government agencies, industry, and consumers.